New Jersey first citizens : biographies and portraits of the notable living men and women of New Jersey with informing glimpses into the state's history and affairs, 1917-1918, Vol. I, Part 43

Author: Sackett, William Edgar, 1848- ed; Scannell, John James, 1884- ed
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Patterson, N.J. : J.J. Scannell
Number of Pages: 594


USA > New Jersey > New Jersey first citizens : biographies and portraits of the notable living men and women of New Jersey with informing glimpses into the state's history and affairs, 1917-1918, Vol. I > Part 43


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JOHN JAY PHELPS-Hackensack, (Red Towers)-Capitalist and Export Merchant. Born at Paris, France, September 27, 1861; son of William Walter and Ellen (Sheffield) Phelps ; mar- ried in New York City April 26, 1SSS to Rose Janet Hutchinson, daughter of Joscelyn and Janet Hutchinson.


Children : Dorothy, born Sept. 1S, 1890; Rose, born April S, 1895.


The family of John Jay Phelps, of English origin, is one of the dis- tinguished in the United States. For generations it has been a power in the financial and social life of the country; and Mr. Phelp's father, the late William Walter Phelps, was a brilliant orator in the Congresses of his day. An earliest of the family records shows that John Phelps was a Clerk of the Court that tried and condemned King Charles the First to the block. Expatriated after the Restoration, he died at Vevey, the Swiss town in which Henryk Sienkiewicz, the famed author of "Quo Vadis," breathed his last in 1916; and there, in 1882, the late Congressman William Walter Phelps, in association with Charles Phelps, had a black marble monument erected to the memory of their progenitor.


William Phelps and his wife, Dorothy, embarked in 1630 from England, on the "Mary and John," with a party of colonists that organized themselves into a church congregation on the way over and became the first settlers of Dorchester, Mass. He was one of the jurors at the first trial (a manslaugh- ter case) in the Colony, was of the Committee of Three that fixed the boundary line between Roxbury and Dorchester and became a member of the General Court of the Colony. He left the Colony afterwards and was one of the seven who founded the town of Windsor in Connecticut. He be-


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came as prominent in the new settlement as he had been in the Massa- chusetts Colony, and participated in the framing of the famous Blue Laws of Connecticut.


The first of the line to come to New York in quest of larger opportuni- ties was John Jay Phelps. With George D. Prentice, afterwards famous among the literary men of the country for his wit and eloquence, he had previously owned and edited a newspaper in Hartford, Conn. Meanwhile he became interested in the Lackawanna coal fields and was, so, drawn to New York. There he formed a partnership with Amos R. Eno, who afterwards built and owned the famous Fifth Avenue Hotel at the 23rd street corner. His interest in the Lackawanna coal fields eventuated in his participation in the organi- zation of the Delaware Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company, and la- ter, for several years, he was its President. He was also in the Erie Railroad Directory and, besides, in a long list of banks and gas companies. Another of his distinctions is that he was the first in New York to use free-stone in archi- tecture.


His son William Walter Phelps moved to Teaneck, (Bergen Co.) in 1869, and soon rose into prominence among the men of the state. He was elected in 1872 to serve in the 43rd Congress, and at the three elections of 1882-'S4 and 1886 was returned as the Representative of the district at the Capitol in Washington. He easily achieved recognition throughout the country for his independence in thought and action, and was instrumental in bringing about the legislation for the suppression of the Ku Klux Klan and of the White League. A public dinner was given to him in recogni- tion of these services. During Gen. Grant's administration, he was As- sistant Seretary of the Treasury and President Garfield appointed him United States Minister to Austria, and afterwards sent him to the Court of Berlin. He was also a Regent of the Smithsonian Institute in Washing- ton and a Trustee of Yale College and, at the time of his death, a Judge of the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals.


John Jay Phelps was brought back from Paris by his parents to Amer- ica in his infancy and educated in Mt. Pleasant Military Academy. Ossin- ing, N. Y., and Siglars School, Newburg, N. Y. He entered Yale College in September, 1879, graduating with the degree of B. A. in 1883. Mr.


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Phelps is an enthusiastic seaman, and after a connection of two years with the Farmers Loan and Trust Company in New York, he made a pleasure trip of over two years around the world in his sailing yacht "Brunhilde." It was the first venture of the kind that had ever been attempted ; and his progress attracted wide attention where ever he went. The Federal Gov- ernment issued a Master's commission to him and special papers introduc- ing him to foreign governments.


Upon his return Mr. Phelps settled in Teaneck, Bergen county, upon a beautiful part of his father's estate there; and, calling it the Red Towers Green Houses, opened a conservatory that was known to all the country around. He became interested in the affairs of the locality ; and, accepting a nomination on the republican ticket, for the county Board of Freeholders, he was elected and served two terms. At the outbreak of the war between the United States and Spain he enlisted as an Ensign in the United States Navy and served until the war's end as Acting Lieutenant and Signal Officer.


When the war between the United States and Germany broke out, Captain Phelps offered to build, equip, and man a submarine chaser. This offer was accepted by Secretary of the Navy, Daniels, and Captain Phelps immediately placed an order for the boat. He successfully passed the ex- amination at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and was ordered to take command of the submarine chaser and report to Rear Admiral Usher, as soon as the boat was in condition.


Mr. Phelps is very much devoted to out of door recreation, and his four-in-hand was known at all the leading resorts in the country-on one trip behind his team he covered 1550 miles.


Mr. Phelps is Vice President of the Hackensack National Bank, Direc- tor of the Hackensack Trust Co., Cayuga & Susquehanna Railroad ; Trustee Texas Land Syndicate No. 3, United States Trust Co .; Director American Graphophone Co .; Member and Trustee United Spanish War Veterans. He is also a member of the Founders and Patriots of America, New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, Hackensack Hospital Association, Military Order of Foreign Wars, New England Society, Navy League of the United States, American Forestry Association, Sons of the Revolution, American and National Geographical Societies, American Museum of Natural History, New York Zoological Society, New Jersey Audubon Society, National Secur. ity League, Union League of New York, Hackensack Golf, Pine Orchard Club (Conn.), University, Yale, New York Yacht of New York City, Sea- wanhaka Yacht, New Haven Yacht, Sachem's Head Yacht, Bogota Boat, Oritani Field, Hamilton, Teaneck, New Jersey Auto and Motor, American Auto Association, Graduates, New Haven Auto. His residence is Red Towers, Hackensack, and Yoncomis Island, Stony Creek, Conn., and his office at 100 Broadway, New York City.


MARY PHILBROOK-Gillette .- Lawyer. Born, Washington, D. C., August 6, 1872; daughter of Harry B. and Rebecca E. (Stearns) Philbrook.


Mary Philbrook was the first woman to make application for admission to the New Jersey Bar. She studied law in Hoboken in the office of


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Russ & Heppenheimer and of Gaede & Minturn; the motion for her ad- mission as an attorney was made by James F. Minturn, now a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. The Supreme Court refused to issue a commission to her because she was a woman, and the legislature in 1895, passed an act permitting it. At the June term of that year she was allowed to take the examination, and, having passed it, became, three years later, a counselor at law. She was afterwards admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court. After a short period of clerkship, she opened an office for herself in Jersey City, but located afterwards in Newark.


While thus engaged she became the attorney for the New Jersey Legal Aid Association, the State Board of Children's Guardians, acted in special


legal work for several large in- surance companies, and did con- siderable legal work for various charitable organizations. By ap- pointment of Chief Justice Gum- mere and of Judge Alfred F. Skinner, she was Probation Of- ficer of Essex county for several years, and helped to organize the first Juvenile Court in the state. She has been a member of the commission to inquire into the need of a Woman's Reformatory and appointed by the Governor to a number of charitable con- ventions. She is a strong suf- fragist and a member of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage As- sociation and of the Federated Clubs, and is an honorary mem- ber of the College Women's Club of Jersey City.


Miss Philbrook has practised before all the courts of New Jersey and in some of the Federal Courts. In a special investigation of the "white slave" traffic, she was engaged by the United States Government as a special investigator, and several important prosecutions by the United States Attorneys in New York, Chicago and Seattle resulted from her investigations.


Miss Philbrook comes of old New England stock. Those of her line were mostly professional people-lawyers, doctors and ministers. On her mother's side her ancestry is Holland-Dutch and claims descent from Peter Minuet. She was educated in the public schools and at the High School in Jersey City and continued in the practice of her profession until ill health compelled her retirement a year ago. She has since devoted herself to the simple life in the rural district in which she resides.


CARLTON B. PIERCE-Cranford, (214 Prospect Street) .- Lawyer. Born at Trenton, June 21, 1857; son of Henry B. and


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Catherine N. (Brownell ) Pierce ; married at Cooperstown, N. Y., September 15, 1885, to Annie Prentiss Browning, of Cooperstown. Children : One son and three daughters.


The name of Carlton B. Pierce is most largely linked with the legis- lation for the elimination of railroad crossings at street grades through- out the state. There are more than 3000 of these crossings in New Jer- sey ; and the railroads were reluctant to consent to general legislation for their abolishment because of the expense. It was said in the discussions of the bill when it was pending that all the roads could not be carried above or below ground at street intersections for less than $150,000,000 and that the cost of the work on their lines would force some of the smaller carrying companies into bankruptcy.


Senator Pierce, as the sponsor and most persistent advocate of the legislation, found it not an easy task to stem the opposition the powerful corporations offered to the passage of the bill. After he had put it through the Houses it was vetoed by Gov. Wilson ; and upon its re-passage subsequently was vetoed a second time by Gov. Fielder. The latter re- placed it with a bill of his own which the legislature enacted and he ap- proved. Reproducing the essential features of Senator Pierce's measures, it provides for so gradual an elimination of grade crossings as to make the work possible for the smaller railroads without financial embarrass- ments-the changes to be specified from year to year by the State Board of Public Utility Commissioners. Senator Pierce was also instrumental in aiding Gov. Fielder in the passage of the bank stock tax act. Of late he has given his attention to tax legislation, resulting in the act re- quiring a tax map in each taxing district, and to a law for the equalization of assessments between districts and counties.


Senator Pierce is a graduate of Rutgers College (1876) and of the Albany Law School (1878). He was admitted to the New York bar in 1878. He practised his profession at Cooperstown, N. Y., until 1893, when he removed to Cranford, where he has since lived. He is a member of both the New York and New Jersey bars and practices in both. His first appearance in politics was when the republicans of Union County nomi- nated him in 1907 as a candidate for the House of Assembly of 1908. Elected then, he was re-elected in 1908-1909. In 1911 his party named him as its candidate for the State Senate and he won, with the plurality of 1,358 which upon his renomination in 1914 he increased to 1,971, over his democratic opponents. In both Houses he served on the more im- portant of the committees and in the Senate was Chairman of the Com- mittee on Taxation and of that on Finance among the others. Mr. Pierce's club and society memberships are with the College Fraternity, Delta Upsilon, Rutgers Chapter and New York Bar Association.


JOHN OLIVER HALSTED PITNEY-Morristown, (Madison Avenue) .- Lawyer. Born in Morristown, April 14, 1860; son of Henry Cooper and Sarah Louise (Halsted) Pitney ; married on


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January 15, 1890 to Roberta A. Ballantine, daughter of Robert F. and Annie E. Ballantine, of Newark.


Children : John B., born Dec. 12, 1892; Robert H., born June 4, 1907.


John O. H. Pitney is the senior member of the law firm of Pitney, Hardin & Skinner, engaged in general practice, with offices in the Pru- dential Building, Newark; and comes of a family that has long been noted in the jurisprudence of the state. His father was a widely known Vice Chancellor of New Jersey ; and his brother, Mahlon, (q. v.) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The family is found originally at Pitney Parish and Pitney Hundred in Somerset- shire, England, but for nearly 200 years has lived in Morris County. Mr. Pitney's paternal great grand-father, Mahlon, was a soldier of the Revo- lutionary War.


Mr. Pitney received his preparatory education in the private schools of Morristown and afterwards entered Princeton University. Having graduated from there in 1881 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he read law with his father in Morristown and was admitted to the bar in New Jersey at the June term of 1884 as an attorney and three years later as a counselor. Establishing himself in Newark, he was for the first ten years in partnership with Frederick H. Teese. Since 1902 he has been similarly associated with John R. Hardin (q. v.). Later ex- Judge Alfred F. Skinner (q. v.) was admitted as a partner, and the firm has since done business under its present title.


While Mr. Pitney is an earnest republican, he has found the de- mands of his profession so exacting as to make it impossible to accept tenders of official position that have been made to him. He is a Trustee of Princeton University and a director of the Mutual Benefit Life In- surance Company, and of the American Insurance Company. He is con- nected with the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown and is a mem- ber of the Essex Club, University Club of New York, the New York Yacht Club, the Morris County Golf Club and the Morristown Club.


MAHLON PITNEY-Morristown .- Jurist. Born at Morris- town, February 5, 1858; son of Henry Cooper and Sarah Louisa (Halsted ) Pitney ; married at Morristown, on November 14, 1891. to Florence Theodora Shelton, daughter of William H. and Char- lotte (Johnes) Shelton, of Morristown.


Children : Guy Shelton ; Mahlon, Jr .; Beatrice Louise.


Mahlon Pitney is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Previously he served as State Senator, member from New Jersey in the Congress of the United States, a Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey and Chancellor of the State. His father served as a Vice Chancellor of the state for eighteen years and was a widely known jurist. His brother, John O. H. Pitney, (q. v.), is a member of the New Jersey Bar.


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Justice Pitney was schooled in his native town and entered Princeton University in 1875. He graduated from there, class of 79. with the A. B. degree. The University conferred the A. M. degree in 1882 and the LL. D. degree later. He studied law in the offices of his father, who was then a practicing lawyer in Morristown, and in 1882 was admitted to the Bar of New Jersey. He opened an office for practice in Dover and achieved rapid recognition among the lawyers of the State.


His activities spread from professional to public affairs. He was Chairman of the State Convention that in 1895 named John W. Griggs as the republi- can candidate for Governor. He had been elected in 1894 to rep- resent the old Fourth District in the Congress of the United States and he was re-elected in '96 to the succeeding Congress. In the first campaign his demo- cratic opponent was Johnston Cornish, and Augustus W. Cut- ler was his democratic oppon- ent in the second. In both Congresses, he was a member of the important Committee on Appropriations, and he was in- strumental in securing the pas- sage of much useful legislation. At the close of his term in Washington a campaign for the Governor- ship had begun to take shape and he was widely urged as a suitable can- didate on the republican side. Meanwhile he became a member of the State Senate, in 1900 was the majority leader on the floor and in 1901 sat in the presiding officer's chair. He withdrew from the gubernatorial contest to make way for the nomination of Foster M. Voorhees, and in 1901 Gov. Voorhees named him as a Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Before the expiration of his seven year term. Gov. Fort named him for Chancellor to succeed William J. Magie, and he was still in that position when President Taft nominated him to the United States Senate to succeed John M. Harlan as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The nomination was confirmed and Mr. Justice Pitney took his seat on the bench in March of 1912.


Justice Pitney is connected with the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown, and a member of several clubs.


DAN FELLOWS PLATT-Englewood, ( Bootley Street)-Law- yer. Born in New York City, June 10. 1873: son of Charles B.


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and Lillie D. (Fellows) Platt; married October 2, 1900, to Ethel Appleby Bliss, daughter of Delos and Emily Fielder Bliss of Highwood.


Dan Fellows Platt, while a large figure in the democratic politics of Bergen County, with an independent leaning, is most widely known probably in connection with the People's Lobby. Being of democratic leanings, he is devoted to the Single Tax policy and opposed to what he describes as the "hysteria" that accompanied the ante-War "preparedness" propaganda. He was a member. named on behalf of New Jersey by Gov. Fielder, of the American Peace Centen- nary Commission in 1914.


Mr. Platt was brought to Englewood by his parents when he was three months old and has lived there ever since. He was prepared for college at the "Englewood School for Boys" and graduated, "magna cum laude." at Princeton in 1895 as the second honor English Salu- torian. He took honors in mathematics, economics, classics and German and is a member of the Ph. B. K. He studied art and archaeology in the American School of Classical Studies in Rome in 1895 and 1896, and taking a course in law at New York Law School, graduated from there in 189S. He was admitted to the Bar in the same year. From 1897 to 1900 he was a member of Squadron A. of the New York National Guard.


Mr. Platt's activities in the public affairs of Englewood and of Bergen county have been very varied. He was President of the Common Council of the city of Englewood in 1902 and 1903, and elected Mayor of Engle- wood in 1903, serving until the close of 1905. He has been Chairman of the Democratic County Committee, was a member of the Democratic State Committee from 1909 to 1916 and went to the Democratic National Con- vention at Baltimore that nominated Woodrow Wilson for President in 1912, as a district delegate.


Mr. Platt is a member of the Executive Committee of the Archaeologi- cal Institute of America, of the Board of Publication of "Art and Archae- ology," a frequent contributor on political subjects to newspapers and on Italian paintings to the art magazines, and is the author of "Through Italy with Car and Camera," (1907) : and of "Automobiling in Europe before the War," (1916). He has lectured on art at Princeton, Yale, Wellesley and other colleges and is one of the Board of Visitors of Harvard University to the Department of Fine Arts. Mr. Platt's collection of photographs of


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art objects in America is the largest in this country and the third largest in the world, and he has a collection of Italian paintings of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries.


Mr. Platt is a Mason and a member of the B. P. O. E.


JOHN PLATT-Westfield .- Civil Engineer. Born in Gloucester, England. June 1. 1864: son of James and Elizabeth ( Wadding- ton ) Platt : married at New Bedford, Mass .. December 23. 1891. to Mary Bourne Bartlett, daughter of Bourne S. Bartlett of Manomet, Mass.


Children : Hilda, born December 1, 1892: John, born July 23. 1894: Robert, born February 14, 1901 : Hugh, born July 11, 1904.


John Platt has been engaged in the profession of Consulting Engineer in New York City since 1891. He has devoted his attention especially to naval and ship building work and looked after the interests of a number of English concerns. He is a connoisseur in art as well, with a particular skill in early Chinese and Kore- an pottery ; his collections have been exhibited at the Japan So- ciety and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. An article of his preparation. printed in the "Burlington Ma- gazine." issue of January, 1912, was a treatise on Ancient Kore- an Tomb-wares.


Mr. Platt is of English extrac- tion. Five generations of the family lived in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, though his father was born in Manchester and was an Alderman and Mayor of Glou- cester.


Mr. Platt was educated in the Crypt Grammar School. Glou- cester, and at Matlock College ; and. in the University College in London, took a course of en- gineering in 'S4 and 'S5 under Sir Alexander B. W. Kennedy. He resided in Gloucester until 18SS and was Captain of the First Gloucester Volunteer Royal Engineers, with two companies in the command. He crossed the seas to this side toward the end of that year, and has resided at High Orchard. Westfield, since 1891. He is interested in outdoor sports, particularly golf and farm- ing. and has a country place at Stage Point, Manomet, Mass.


He is a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the American


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Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Naval Architects and Marine Engi- neers and The American Society of Naval Engineers. His club connections are with the Engineers (New York), Army and Navy ( Washington), Bal- tusrol Golf, and the Automobile and Whitehall ( London).


LOUIS PLAUT-Newark .- Merchant. Born at Hartford, Conn., December 29th, 1862; son of David and Betty Plaut : married on August 5, 1885, to Carrie Katz, daughter of Anseline and Rosa Katz, of Newark.


Children : L. Simon, born May 11, 1886; L. Sylvia, born June 1, 1889.


Louis Plaut is the President of L. S. Plaut & Co., one of the imposing department stores in the state. His parents were natives of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany who came to these shores and settled in Connecticut.


At sixteen Mr. Plaut came to Newark and attached himself to the business house of Fox & Plaut of which his brother, L. Simon, was one of the proprietors. The establishment afterwards passed into the entire control of L. Simon Plaut. When he died in 1886, he left the business to his brothers Louis and Moses, and Oscar Michael. The business has been conducted for many years under the name of L. S. Plant & Co. The business was started originally on modest lines, but the energy with which it was pushed built it eventually into one of the largest in the state. In its ample establishment on Broad street, Newark, more than 1,000 persons are now employed.


Mr. Plaut is a Trustee of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, of the Home for Crippled Children and of the Temple B'nai Jeshurun and a Director of the Federal Trust Company.


JOSEPH WILLIAM PLUME-Newark, (57 Second Avenue)- Banker and Soldier. Born in Troy, N. Y., August 23. 1839.


Joseph W. Plume, President of the Manufacturers' National Bank in Newark, has seen service in two wars and was Major General of the State Militia for fourteen years. Under his administration as Major General the State Militia underwent a notable reorganization. When General Plume resigned the position in February of 1899 he had put in forty-two years of continual service with the National Guard.


General Plume's first enlistment was in 1857 in the ranks of Com- pany C of the City Battalion, a local organization that enjoyed high prestige both because of its personnel and tactical proficiency. During the Civil War, he became Brigade Inspector of the State Militia with the rank of Major ; after its close, (in June of 1865). he was commissioned as Colonel of the 2nd Regiment New Jersey Rifle Corps and in 1869 he was elected Colonel of the 2nd Regiment of the National Guard. In 1869 he was commissioned Brigadier General of the First Brigade, and


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in 1879 Gov. Mcclellan named him Brevet Major General. When Major General Gershom Mott died in 1885, Gov. Abbett appointed General Plume to succeed him. He continued in the service until 1899 when he resigned the position. In his 42 years of service he was for four years a private, a Major for two years, a Colonel for four years, a Brigadier for sixteen years and a Major-General for fourteen years.




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